So happy Christmas everyone! What a lot of good cheer there is going on here.
Well, since I have done the same work, I'll add a few comments.
People really don't appreciate how incredibly long it takes to make these announcements. When I did them I would often put it off for far too long, because doing it required having a free day to devote to a tiresome task. Of course, the longer I put it off, the more intimidating the task, because there were yet more files to announce. And the more I would put it off. I'm sure we've all experienced something like that.
It takes so long for two main reasons. The first is that simply assembling the text takes a long time and is tedious. You have to follow all of these links, copy and paste the URLs, get the file name and author name right, and categorise them. This is sometimes rendered harder not only by the contracted URLs that Blue Monkey talked about but by the fact that some authors give links to "library" threads containing many files (sometimes direct to the relevant post in that thread, sometimes just to the thread itself, forcing me to hunt through it) and some give links to threads devoted to a single file; some use showthread URLs and others use showpost URLs; some give links to forum threads, some to database pages, and some to the direct download from the database pages. I tried, and usually failed, to standardise these when compiling them into the announcement. Also, being an obsessive proof-reader, I worked hard to ensure that all files, authors, and comments were displayed in a consistent style, and that they were listed in a consistent order. Within category, I listed everything in the order in which it appeared in this thread - apart from different files by the same author, which were listed together, but within author they were again listed in chronological order. That takes time to do, and it also involves making more decisions: do unit packs, for example, get listed as single entries, or do all the units get their own entries? What about a "pack" of just two units? What about old, lost files that have been rescued and re-uploaded? This is why I fairly quickly abandoned the practice, which I initially followed, of adding comments of my own to each file. That just doubled the time.
The second reason it takes a long time is that the images take ages as well. First, like URLs, authors often don't provide these in an easily accessible way, let alone one that is consistent between everyone. Some are in BMP format, some in JPEG, and some in PNG. That's a trivial inconsistency. More problematic is the fact that some files, such as units and buildings, typically have a standard form, but not everyone follows it. Some people provide extra-large-size versions of the pedia icons. Some people provide not pedia icons at all, but enormous and very artistic renderings of the models they used with different backgrounds. Some people provide not icons but shots from within Poser of the model against a purple background. Some people provide frames from the animation. Some people provide large composite images displaying lots of units or buildings at once, which again can come in all sorts of formats (white pedia-style background, purple flic-style background, etc.). Some give composite images showing different files for single objects (e.g. images showing the large and small pedia icons next to each other), or add borders to their images, or explanatory text. With all of these I have to decide what to do with it - use it as it is, resize it, reshape it, cut bits out of it, or whatever. And some people don't provide static previews at all, which means I have to download the file itself, unzip it, locate the pedia image, and convert it. This takes time.
Even once the images have all been hunted down and put into something resembling the right format, it is still a long and difficult process to arrange them into a preview image. Usually there is not enough room for all of them, so I have to decide what is going in and what is being left out - with the proviso that the image has to look good, has to give a good sense of the range of files on offer, and has to be as fair as possible to everyone so that the work of as many different authors as possible is represented, and shown in as good a light as possible. Images that are "standard"-sized or shaped, such as standard pedia icons, are not hard to arrange in a tiling fashion, especially as they are fairly small. Larger ones such as wonder splashes are harder but are nice to get in as they usually look so impressive. Most problematic are any in-game shots, usually those showing terrain or cities, because the provided images are usually large and need to be cut down - but how much, to what size and shape, and where do they go in the image? I eventually developed the method of getting around some of this by shrinking some images down extra-small just to get them in, but again I had to be careful not to seem to be singling anyone's work out for that treatment. (And people still complained...)
Now I understand that when you've created something you want to see it up there with everything else. We are all creators here and we are all proud of what we've done, and if it seems that your work is not being properly acknowledged then that can be upsetting. But people do need to understand that making these announcements is really time-consuming, and while it may be fun to do for the first one or two, the novelty wears off very quickly. I remember people complaining about various aspects of how I'd done it, and I suggested that if they wanted to do one themselves I'd be very happy for them to do so, and nothing more would be heard on the subject. I found making these announcements by far the most tedious and annoying aspect of moderating and also the most thankless (well, perhaps with one or two exceptions which I won't discuss here). If Blue Monkey has particular guidelines that he wants creators to follow to streamline the process, then that's not only reasonable, it's entirely to everyone's benefit. It means he gets the tedious job done more quickly and pleasantly, and it means that announcements get posted more quickly and frequently, which in turn means that everyone has more of a chance of having their work displayed more often and more prominently. So please don't view this as an antagonistic issue or a conflict, but as a cooperative matter where different people have different roles and are there to help one another out.